The use of “smart” wearable devices has its historic origins in the use of analogue timepieces including pocket and wrist watches. Most of the five hundred year old history of watches consisted of the development of the mechanical watch. Watches evolved from portable spring driven clocks, which first appeared in 15th-century Europe. Portable timepieces were made possible by the invention of the mainspring in the early 15th century and most likely were developed by German clockmaker Peter Henlein. The invention of the quartz watch in the 1960s, which ran on electricity and kept time with a vibrating quartz crystal, proved a radical departure for the industry. During the 1980s quartz watches took over the market from mechanical watches, an event referred to as the “quartz crisis”. The first digital electronic watch, a Pulsar LED prototype in 1970, was developed jointly by Hamilton Watch Company and Electro-Data, founded by George H. Thiess and started a new revolution wearable devices.
Developments in the 2010s have included smartwatches, which are elaborate computer enabled electronic devices designed to be worn on a wrist. Their ubiquitous use today most likely has its initial roots in military and espionage needs. Although they generally incorporate timekeeping functions, this has become only a small fraction of current smartwatch capabilities. In addition to timekeeping, the user now has the ability to perform consumer purchases and with the invention of credit and debit cards, is able to transact business on an electronic basis as never before. Debit cards draw from a positive account balance maintained by the user and require verification of identification, usually a personal identification number (PIN) to complete a purchase.
“Smart Cards” are another recent transaction device that also requires a personal identification number to complete a transaction. Smart Cards, like debit cards, execute purchases from a positive account balance but the balance is maintained in the card itself. Additions to the card balance must be properly purchased and, typically, Smart Cards have safeguards against an illicit account increase.
Credit and debit-card purchases require the use of a physical card or at least its entry into a purchasing system by number. Users of Smart Cards are not immune to the disadvantages above. A buyer of goods from an automatic Smart Card-reading vending machine is required to swipe the card through a slot. The buyer is then required to enter a PIN to verify his or her identity and authorization for a purchase. Systems have begun to emerge that allow the non-contact use of Smart Cards through RF or infrared technology. However, a PIN must still be entered at some point in the transaction. If a Smart Card is stolen and the thief is able to acquire the rightful user's PIN, then there is no safeguard remaining to prevent the thief s access to the Smart Card's entire balance.
A reliable means of determining the identity of a potential user of a Smart Card, and thus whether that person is an authorized user, is by the use of biometric data identification. Biometric data is data taken from the measurement of some characteristic peculiar to an individual. A digitized thumbprint is an example of biometric data. Iris scans, speech pattern scans or various body temperatures, pH or even electrical characteristics are biometric data that can be used for validating the authenticity of an individual or groups of individuals.
In a system that uses biometric data for identification, a device that reads biometric data scans the relevant measurement of the candidate for identification. The attached system then compares the scanned data with data stored in the Smart Card. A match of data sets is then sufficient for identification.
A more recent implementation of such a scheme is the use of a thumbprint scanner which can read the user's thumbprint and determine whether it compares favorably with a stored thumbprint. If the user's data does not compare favorably, the system to which the identifying device is connected refuses to allow access to either on-board data or a network or, in some cases, a purchase. An iris scanner or a speech pattern reader functions similarly, though may be somewhat more difficult to implement. Systems using biometrics often still require physical contact between a user and a system and the system can be bulky and expensive. One solution to this issue has been to develop user-wearable electronic devices utilizing wireless transactions. These devices include devices that comprises a housing that houses a wireless communication device, one or more electronic circuits, a power source, a display device and a biometric data reading device. While enabled as a timepiece or performing other functions suitable to a user-wearable device (apparatus), the device can establish wireless communication with a counterpart communication apparatus in order to conduct a transaction. The biometric data reading device can read the user's applicable biometric data and then transmit a user identity validation and the wireless communication device can transmit user authorization for the transaction.
Although these devices enable efficient and user-friendly electronic transactions that do not require physical contact and employ biometric data reading in its operation, the need still exists for a user to be able to authorize a completely secured electronic transaction by having a wearable device that provides encryption for at least three vital aspects;                a) secured and uncompromised bio-identification of the user of the devices        b) secured and uncompromised communications and transaction capabilities when using and/or wearing the devices        c) secured and uncompromised access to the devices and all data contained within the user-wearable devices        